Tuesday, September 23, 2008

I effed an o, or maybe two

It's been a long time since any finished objects were shown around here. Upon closer inspection of Ye Olde Blogge Archive, it seems that not only have I not finished anything in a while, I also haven't shown you the things I did manage to finish!

Don't get your hopes up - it's just socks.

Way back in early July, I knit some handspun socks. Then I took a really craptacular photo of them. And posted the photo to Flickr. And updated Ravelry. And after all that, I promptly forgot to blog about them.

Why yes, they ARE pinned to the fabric walls of my cube open office at work, thankyouverymuch.

I absolutely HATED knitting these. I knit tightly, and that made the twisted stitches at the top quite beastly. Plus, I had the patterns *almost* memorized, but not quite - it was annoying to have to look at the chart when I almost didn't need it.

I have a theory about the twisted stitch cuff. I think Nancy Bush designed a sock that would be full of beautiful twisted stitch patterns that would extend down the whole leg of the sock. Then she knit three inches of it and wanted to slit her wrists. So, she threw in a purl round and some leg decreases, kept one tiny pattern on the sides, and called it a day. (Ok, not really, but let me make myself feel better, ok?)

I usually knit pretty socks for others and plain ones for myself, but I decided to start making myself some fancy ones. I do love how these look, and I am glad that I persevered. I can't wait to wear them this fall and winter!

Back in February, I decided to knit a rainbow of socks. In color order.

I would not be at all surprised if you were right about the design process. Of such things are compromises made, and a good thing, too, as we need all the knitters we can get. I do like extending one tiny bit of the cuff design all the way down the leg... I may steal that at some point.